[[!template id=project
title="Research converting system interfaces to XML"
contact="""
[tech-kern](mailto:tech-kern@NetBSD.org)
"""
mentors="""
[Antti Kantee](mailto:pooka@NetBSD.org), [Adam Hamsik](mailto:haad@NetBSD.org)
"""
category="kernel"
difficulty="hard"
duration="3 months"
description="""
System interfaces are currently specified as C prototypes, C preprocessor macros and C structures. This limits the ability to do automatic processing with them. There are some cases in the tree which implement an ad-hoc domain specific language and a script producing a C representation of the data, for example vnode_if.src and namei.src.
The goal of the project is to come up with a specification language and test it by rewriting a considerable subset of the current C headers in it. A translator for generating the C representations and documentation should also be implemented. Finally, the student should suggest and implement any other use for the translator. An example is autogenerating code to print structures in a human-readable form from the ddb kernel debugger.
This is more of a research project than a simple implementation. The goals are very loosely set now, but should be exactly specified by the student in the application.
For honors, a static analyzer examining if calls are made with the correct type of flag arguments can be written as the third requirement. It would warn about for example `malloc(s, M_TEMP, PR_WAITOK);`.
"""
]]
[[!tag gsoc]]